7 Devils
by MyWeirdoEyes
Summary: Kuroko is the heir to the throne of the powerful Hideaki Empire. What he doesn't know is that his father made a deal with 7 devils years ago to make the empire so powerful. And now those seven demons have come to claim their reward. GoM Teppei Haizaki/Kuroko.
1. Chapter 1

It was two minutes away from midnight. The stars and moon were covered by dark clouds. Something most people believed was caused by the fact that it was a winter night and although the ground was covered in a thick layer of snow it wasn't yet up to the expectations of that winter. Yes ,there was still a lot more snow to be expected. The one day old snow crunched softly under their boots as they continued moving in high-speed. One minute left before midnight. One of the figures running cursed loudly before the one leading the group kicked him. The trees they moved past were big blurs as they increased their speed further.

In the distance they could see the gate they had to have passed before midnight. The sounds of the church bells ringing reached their ears before they skipped to a stop. Too late. Before the bells could ring their last chime the building next to it exploded . A research lab. Legally investigating to make better medicine, In reality doing human experiments. The children on their back softly sobbed. Except one. A soft voice shushed them.

"Please calm down and don't make a sound. We're going into the trees. I want you all to be as silent as possible so that it won't betray our location to the enemy. Aida, Fukuda, you'll go into the trees first. The rest of us will pass you the children." The two addressed nodded as they went to the two closest trees and started climbing them.

Kuroko nodded as he saw that they were following his orders. Carefully he removed the child from his back. It was the only child that hadn't cried. That had looked emotionless when they had found him the others had all been crying or screaming, but he had just looked at them with cold, calculating eyes. They had to call Kuroko because they all found him scary. Kuroko only saw a person who had suffered too much at the hands of humanity and had gotten an edge because of it. Just like him. Though he hadn't suffered even half as much as this kid. The kid himself had dark blue hair. His left eye was red and his right eye blue. In the left one instead of a pupil he had a sign.

Kuroko smiled softly at him before passing him over to Aida and turning around to pick up the next kid. He hadn't seen the widening of the kids eyes at his smile. When all kids were in the trees he had the others of the group also climb into a tree until only he and Kagami remained on the ground. Two different trees were quickly chosen for their hiding place until the ambush. Kuroko soundlessly unsheathed his dagger as he watched Kagami check his guns. They heard snow crunching and Kuroko was thankful for the dark night as it would be in their advantage. He wouldn't want the children to see the slaughter. Dark shadows were quickly moving closer to their hiding place as Kuroko shot Kagami a look. He nodded.

At the exact same time they jumped. The dagger effortlessly slit the throat of the person which its owner had jumped on. Gunshots sounded through the night as Kuroko leaned to the side effectively avoiding a round house kick sent his way. He grabbed the foot before harshly pulling it closer and sweeping his attackers other foot under him out. The dagger once again found its target and slit through the throat like a knife through warm butter. Releasing the flesh that was clinging to its blade The dagger was swiftly thrown sideward were it made its way through its targets skull before sticking. Kuroko looked to the other side were Kagami finished off their last pursuer and smiled. Maybe not on time, but they would still make it through the gate.

His smile perished when thought of the punishment he would surely face reached his mind . It didn't matter though. The memory of the children's smile was worth more than enough to withstand. The bodies were burned as the children were taken out of the trees. He looked at the blue and red eyed kid in the eyes and smiled softly. He reached out his hands to catch the child and was surprised when the child let out a cold chuckle sending chills up the surrounding people their spines. "Kufufufu, I'll accept your help for now."

He saw it, Kuroko realized. _The reason he decided to accept my help is because he knows that I can kill . Does he distrust nice people? Does he doubt that they're genuine?_

Kuroko laughed softly and pulled the child into his embrace. "You're a tad like me, aren't you?" Before the kid could answer he switched him to his back.

"Everyone ready?" There were several confirmations as Kuroko nodded to himself knowing no could see him except maybe the child on his back.

"We're going then." The group once again started to move towards the gates. When they were finally through Kuroko couldn't help but smile. The children were safe. What a waste he wasn't.

* * *

The belt swung down for the umpteenth time. Kuroko bit down on his already bitten through lip feeling the tears slip down his face as the blood did so down his back. The flesh of his back was torn to pieces. For a moment the lashing stopped and Kuroko prepared himself for the hit he knew would come Hard and it did. A foot connected harshly with his stomach causing him fly with his back against the wall. For the first time that night he cried out. At last the beating had stopped; It always stopped after the kick, or sometimes a hit or punch to the head or face. He looked up slowly, the first thing he saw being his father's consort face. She was stern but nice to him. But whenever he was beaten he saw the pity in her eyes and he despised her for it. She was after all that monster's lover.

He heard the door being slammed shut. His father had left the room. Alexandra (the consort) tried to tend to his wounds, but he automatically shied away from her touch. She sighed. She was a beautiful lady. She had long blond hair soft like silk and the bluest eyes hidden carefully behind classic glasses. She had fairly large assets being the main reason his father had chosen her as his consort. She had a somewhat weird personality though. Tried to kiss every person she saw.

She used to be one of the armies greatest assets; a smart woman and one of the best swordfighters in the empire. Then his father saw her and bam. She was removed from the army, her family murdered and her house burned down. All because his father wanted her as his concubine. He disliked her; because even though everything that his father had done to her she never tried to resist, to fight. And he utterly despised her for it. Another reason he disliked her was because she had replaced his mother. His so very sweet mother who had always stopped the beatings.

"I'll go get the Empress Dowager."

* * *

Kuroko Tsuki considered herself to be an old but wise woman, but she could never quite figure out what had gone wrong with her only son's upbringing. She herself had been a strict but fair mother and while his father had spoiled the boy now and then it had been nothing that could lead to this kind of person. Her son – and she hated bringing herself down to this level, but there was nothing quite as accurate in her son's description as this- was a little piece of shit. He was a cowardly, egoistical, arrogant and abusive piece of shit.

When his fiancé had agreed to the marriage she had felt bad for the girl – and the girl for herself, just kidding – and had been disgusted with herself and her husband that they had subjected this girl to her son just because of the connections the girl would bring. The Borgia family (LOL,I'm mixing everything up) was after all the ruling family of an empire almost as big as their own, but with a lot more powerful magic. It didn't change the fact that they had subject a sweet and nice girl like Lucrezia Borgia to the torture of having to live day and night next to that thing that she had to call her son.

But the person that had been created through that marriage. Oh, there was no one she loved more. Kuroko Tetsuya had been a cute little boy who no one had ever seemed to notice except she and her daughter-in-law. He had always shone them such bright smiles when they played, taught, listened to him. He was bright like the sun to them and to the others a dark shadow never to be noticed.

And when Lucrezia had come to her telling her that her son was beating her and Tetsuya she hadn't believed her. She had known that the girl wouldn't lie about something like that, but her heart couldn't believe it and it had never been able to until she had looked down on the beaten to death body of Lucrezia Borgia. And in that moment she had hated herself. Because she had known that she could have avoided that death. What had broken her heart even more was the sight of sweet little Tetsuya looking at the scene from the closet where his mother had quickly pushed him in when she had heard the rage driven footsteps of her husband. He had seen his mother being beaten to death.

He hadn't cried, no, what he had lost was far worse than a few tears. What her grandson had lost that night was his innocence and his trust in humanity. He had been 8 at the time. After that he had asked her to teach him how to influence people, how to be noticeable, how to manipulate them and how to be charismatic. And she did. She pounded everything into him until he was perfect at it. After that they had started working a lot harder on his knowledge. History, Math, Languages, Arts, Sword fighting, Magic Use. She taught him everything she knew. And when her knowledge wasn't enough to satiate him anymore she started hiring him private teachers. And when he was 14 years old he was perfect in everyone's eyes except her and his.

In her eyes he had just grown up to fast. He was still sweet at times, but he had been forced to grow up. And in his eyes it just wasn't enough and then he had asked her to teach him her family magic. She had been petrified . Family magic was illegal in their Empire Hideaki . It was at that moment that she realized that he trusted her. She had believed that he had lost the ability together with his mother and she had been so happy that she agreed and never once had she regretted it. Later on he had asked her if he could try to contact his family from his mother side. She had immediately agreed.

Because even though she knew how cruel they could be to the world they were well-known to be protective of their children and Kuroko was one of their children, but before Kuroko could even send his owl he was seized by the soldiers and brought to his father to be beaten down into the ground. From that moment on he had been forbidden to contact his family from his mothers side. Apparently the Borgia family had been asking for a long time to meet him but his father had straight out refused them. If the relation between the two empires had been rocky after Lucrezia her death it was out right volatile after the refusal. The Borgias continued asking and the emperor continued refusing. The situation continued growing more dangerous until they were at the brink of war and that was the current situation.

So she understood her son's anger at his son's foolishness of infiltrating the Borgia empire 'just to save some stupid brats' as her son would surely put it. That didn't mean she understood his reasoning of beating his sweet son into the ground. After all it had been a remarkably great action. Just a very foolish one. She knew her grandson was beaten regularly. With or without reason . Every time Alexandra called her to heal him and she saw his broken body she remembered why she had grown to hate her son.

She heard his soft, but steady breathing and felt relieved knowing that his lungs hadn't been injured like last time. Carefully she cradled his cheeck with the palm of her hand holding his head up. His eyes were hazed from the pain. She sighed knowing she wouldn't be able to take the pain away unless she wanted to be stripped from all her power and titles for using family magic. She stiffened when she heard his voice croaking.

"Don't heal it. Just clean it a-and put some bandages on it. Let the whole world see what a pig my father is."

She chuckled despite the situation. "That's the spirit, Boy!" As long as he kept talking like that she knew she didn't have to worry about him killing himself. She hated that it was possible his hatred that was keeping him alive, but she sure preferred it to the alternative. For a moment she looked at Alexandra silently asking her a question. The woman nodded and stood up. A moment later she returned with a bowl of warm water, 2 bottles of vodka and bandages. She handed them over to Tsuki who accepted them gracefully and placed the water with warm water down. She took the bottles of vodka and did a bit in a glass before handing it to Tetsuya.

"Here ,this is going to hurt." Kuroko looked at the alcohol before shaking his head. She sighed.

"Lay down and don't bite on your lip. You're free to scream here. I'm not your father. Allowing yourself to scream with me is not a sign of defeat, but a sign of trust in me." Kuroko moved to lay down in slow and careful movements trying to hurt himself as little as possible before nodding at her words.

Tsuki grimaced as she started pouring the vodka on his back and saw him clawing at the floor. The pouring continued until the bottle was empty and then she opened up the other bottle and started pouring that on his back. The clawing continued as started the moaning. She continued until his back had been completely submerged into the vodka. They waited for a while before starting to clean the back with the warm water and putting the bandages on.

"I can't quite say that you're as good as new, but at least the wounds will now be able to heal."

Kuroko looked up at her tired face. She had bags under her eyes and her wrinkles were started to show through. He felt guilty for making her worry so much. Mindful of his wounds he stood up resisting the urge to bite his lips as he engulfed her in a hug.

* * *

Akashi looked at the emperor they had helped years ago and felt slightly …nauseous. The boy that they had made a contract with years ago hadn't been the most pure person on earth either, but this person his soul was absolutely vile. He suddenly felt happy that they hadn't put a price on their help years ago and had decided to think it over and come for their reward later. The years had been kind to their contractor. He hadn't been a beautiful boy, but he had grown up to be a somewhat handsome man. Nowhere near their own beauty but then again he had yet to see a mortal who was.

After arguing for a few decades the group of demons still hadn't agreed on what they wanted as reward. Akashi had decided for them to go to human realm and see if there was anything worth having. Right now he was discussing their stay. Well, discussing…more demanding.

"I can't have your …kind going around the castle what are the nobles going to think of me?"

Akashi listened to the man's whining for the umpteenth time and decided to forego the asking and just take it. He sent a look at Haizaki and Aomine. Aomine grinned while Haizaki just che'd. They both did what he asked though. Suddenly they were in front of the man's throne. Haizaki grabbed the man by the throat with his left hand and hefted him up while Aomine leaned closer to the man's face.

"I think you're misunderstanding something here. We're not asking if we can stay. We're saying that we're staying." Aomine said softly with a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Fine ,You can stay!" The man rasped out with trouble.

Akashi smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

Mukuro looked around the room he had been stuffed in since the strange guy with the light blue hair had been seized by the soldiers. It was a beautiful room fitting for royalty. It was almost like a flat within the palace. There was a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a small office room. The walls of the living room where painted to be a beautiful scenario. A field full of wildflowers while the sun was setting. The ground was covered in a thick beige colored carpet. Here and there were abstract paintings on the wall. Vases full with the same wildflowers as those on the wall decorated a coffee table, a normal table and several other furniture. The three couches were fairly comfortable and Mukuro was able to sink away in them with his child like body. The evils of this transformation, Che.

There was also a chess table and tons of books tucked away in bookcases. Not to forget the grand piano of course and the several canvases and painting materials hidden in one of the many cabinets. Yes, Mukuro had gone all out in his inspection of the room. There was also a cello though mostly covered of view by the grand piano.

The bathroom existed mainly out of marble. There was a large ground tub. A lot like a swimming pool actually. Except that a swimming pool didn't have warm water or decorative fishes and mermaids made of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds and other gemstones , plus a swimming pool is made out of large stones and cement while this tub was made out of smooth marble. A lot more comfortable than those rough stones obviously. And there was a sitting bank in the tub. Rich people. If he was to believe the red haired guy he would get to use this although he had to share with the blue haired person.

Now that he was on that subject anyway he wondered what his 'savior' looked like. The only time he had seen the other's face was in the night after all and when they were finally here in daylight and everything the guy got himself seized by soldiers who all called him the prince. For a moment he had considered possessing the other, but then he realized that the other getting seized by soldiers probably didn't mean anything good for the prince. Plus the fact that the Borgia empire and the Hideaki empire were at the brink of war. And the prince was obviously going to be a target in that war. Hmmm, maybe he should look around a tad bit more before deciding to possess the prince. No use continuing thinking about this now though. He would end up seeing the prince sooner or later anyway as he was in his room.

The bedroom was in a way a lot like the living room . There weren't any grand pianos, couches or cellos though, but the room was decorated with vases with red spider lily's and snowdrops. There were once again tons of books tucked away in bookcases, but while the ones in the living room had been educational books these were more often than not fictional books. The walls were once again a beautiful scenario. This time it was snowstorm. Mukuro had never known that a painting with so little colors could be so very alive.

On the wall left to the door stood a small young girl. Probably around six years old. She was wearing a blood red coat. The red of the coat matching that of the spider lily's oh so very well. Her black hair blowing in all directions because of the headstrong wind, but even though the wind and snow were obviously beating on her there was a smile playing around her lips. When he looked farther up her face he froze. Because while that smile had seemed completely honest her eyes were colder and more bitter than the raging snowstorm around her could ever be. They seemed to contain hopelessness, locked away anger and a feeling of helplessness. It almost seemed like she had been …Abandoned.

"Do you like it?" A tired voice with a hint of bitterness and pain still fading away asked him. Mukuro slowly turned around cursing himself for only having realized now that there was someone else in the room.

"Kufufufu,I suppose I do." He looked at the light blue colored hair and realized that this had to be the prince. He hadn't expected someone quite as beautiful. The prince had big eyes in the same color as his hair with long black eyelashes covering them. The skin looked a lot like porcelain, but had a pink hue to it and a thin layer of sweat? The nose was straight and the lips bitten through? The prince had a pained expression on his face as he was obviously trying hard to resist biting on his lips again. He looked to be around 17 years old. A few years younger than Mukuro his real age. He was quite petite for a boy of his age.

"I'm happy you do. I'm sorry you have to see me in this state, but I'm afraid that since you will be staying in this room for as long as you'll remain at the palace I'm afraid you'll be seeing me a lot more in this state. My name is Kuroko Tetsuya. Yours?"

Mukuro continued taking in Kuroko's appearance and his words and realized that he must be regularly beaten.

"Mukuro Rukodo ,Nice to meet you."

Kuroko sighed.

"Mukuro,I want you to feel at home here so you don't have to mind yourself around me. I know that I'm going to do the same around you. I'll be taking a bath feel free to do whatever you want. As long as I have a room left when I return to my bedroom. You can invite people into this wing but I want you to inform me on beforehand. I'll do the same for you. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

* * *

Kise looked around the room the seven of them had gotten. It was pretty big an easily able to hold the seven of them. There were three bedrooms all with king-size beds. There was only one bathroom, but it had an enormous ground tub so that was alright. Then there was the living room that had three couches and a small coffee table. There was a lot of books both of educational kind - bleh– and of fictional kind –less bleh, but still bleh - and then there was the dining room with a table fit for 10 people. All the rooms were in baroque style. As decorations there were several vases, paintings and mirrors.

They didn't seem to be placed in the guest wing though seeing the lack of people in the hallways. Puh, he had wanted to make new friends. When they had asked the guards they had said that the wing was inhabited though. He looked up bored when he heard the door open, but perked up when he saw that it was Aominecchi. He jumped up and threw himself at the other person.

"Aominecchi! Let's go explore ~ "

"Kise! I'm busy."

"But –"

They both stilled when they heard soft breathing and a steady heartbeat pass the door of their room.

They waited for a moment to see if it would return, but it didn't. The owner of the heart causing the heartbeat kept moving away from them and thus widening the distance.

"Do you think it's the other habitant of this wing?" Kise whispered in the ear of Aomine who silently nodded at his question.

"I wanna meet him!" Kise suddenly shouted before running out . Aomine cursed before following him. When they found the human he was standing in the courtyard. He had brilliant blue hair and a petite body build though not exactly an effeminate one either. Aomine betted that he was around 166-170cm. The blue haired boy sat down in front of a small pool of water in lotus position closing his eyes. They continued looking at the boy for a minute before deciding that he was probably just relaxing. Slowly however as the boys eyes opened the water of the small pool started spreading cm by cm until it formed a perfect circle around the boy. When the boy had his eyes opened completely the water shot up forming a dome around the boy.

Then small tendrils of water from the dome started touching the boy, caressing him, loving him. And while in the beginning the water had seemed to concentrate mainly on his hands and his face once one of the tendrils touched his back they seemed to concentrate on the boy's back. Aomine tried to remember if he had ever seen water interact with a person like that before, but he didn't. From what he remembered of the element it was a most of the time very calm, but when angered enough it could cause some of the worst natural disasters. For an example a tsunami, but more often than not it was a very neutral yet kind element, but the motion which the water moved with portrayed more than a neutral kindness. The water made protective and even slightly possessive movements towards the boy. It utterly adored him.

The Tengu shuddered. He remembered demons whose elements had the same reaction towards them. In fact he was living with one of them. Yet this person was obviously a human otherwise his heart wouldn't be beating. The demons whose elements reacted like that towards them were most of the time utterly terrifying. Then again this human's emotions weren't quite right either now that he observed them from closer up. There was hatred, bitterness and the slightest hint of pain though it seemed to grow weaker by the second. The water was soothing pain, he then realized. The back must have been injured. He wondered what was the cause. He knew that the water couldn't heal the boy so maybe he would soon be seeing it? After all healing magic was forbidden in the Empire unless you were registered as a doctor as they were allowed to use it.

Slowly the water started to withdraw. Almost hesitantly.

And then the boy's head suddenly whipped around his gaze locking on them.

"This wing is forbidden for guests unless invited in by me and since shortly Mukuro ." Were the first words that came out of the boy's lips before taking a breath. Then continued.

"But as we have an agreement to inform each other if we invite someone I know that he didn't invite you. So who are you?"

Aomine looked at Kise cursing the idiot. Why did he need to storm after somebody they didn't even know. Kise however just grinned.

"We were assigned to this wing by the Emperor. He said we could stay here as long as we like. I'm Kise and the idiot over there is Aominecchi."

"It's Aomine you idiot!"

"I see, the Emperor did." The boy said with bitterness in his eyes. Then he looked up taking their forms in.

"Does the Empress Dowager know of your arrival.?" Kise cocked his head at the question his finger on chin in a thoughtful way.

"No, I don't think so."

"Then he had no such right to assign you my wing or even receive you. Not that I'm throwing you out. The emperor wouldn't put people he liked in my wing. No, you're most likely here because he doesn't want other people to see you." The boy said now it triumph in his eyes.

"And who are you to say what the emperor can and can't do?" Kise asked with his eyebrows shooting his hairline in.

"His wife's son."

Kise's mouth formed an o. The guards had spoken with great reverence and respect in their tones about the other inhabitant of their wing, but the emperor had been absolutely hateful about the very same person. He hated his son?

The cautious voice that had just addressed them changed into a melodious and soft one.

"Kom hier Schnee (meant in the german way. Means snow)." From out of nowhere a snow owl appeared.

"Geef Tsuki Rin een bericht van mij. Empress Dowager, the emperor has decided to shelter an unknown amount of guests without your knowledge. This is not in his power and while I do not mind lending my wing to the guests I do happen to mind that I have not been asked nor informed about this. I trust you to handle the issue."

The owl rose from the arm it had been perched on and flew away the labyrinth of hallways within.

Kuroko suddenly smiled at them. "Now that that issue is out of the way any of you want to spar?

Aomine looked up surprised at the sudden change in attitude. His tone however spoke of confidence.

"Sure, ready to be beaten into the ground pretty boy?"

Kuroko just nodded . "If you are then so am I. Weapon spar?"

Aomine shrugged.

"Sure. I'm using a sword."

The boy hummed. "I'll be using daggers."

_A few minutes later…_

Swiftly Kuroko dodged a sword slash aimed at his head. He might have bitten of a tad more than he could chew when he had asked the other to duel. Not that he had known that at that moment and it was pretty fun finally fighting against an opponent who challenged him.

He however couldn't dodge the kick in the chest making him land rather harshly. He quickly rolled to the side when he heard an object whipping through the air happy to have done so when he saw the sword impaled in the ground he had been laying on a second ago. Almost instinctively he swiped with one of his legs at Aomine's making the blue headed one lose his balance. He rolled until he was straddling the other his waist, his dagger right above the heart of the other.

"I would think you lose?" Aomine smirked up at him.

"You truly believe so?" Before Kuroko could even nod the other had with unimaginable speed grabbed his wrist switched their positions and the dagger that had just a minute ago been pointing at Aomine's heart was now pointing at his own throat. Kuroko laughed. It was an honest laugh, free of all his worries.

"I give."

Aomine looked to be about to say something when he was interrupted by a cold, soft voice.

"What is going here?"

* * *

The Emperor looked down upon god knows how many messengers of the Borgia Empire and still the messenger delivered the very same request as all those other messengers did. A request from the Borgia family - no empire- to see their blood family, Tetsuya and again he refused. And No,the fact that he hated the Borgia family's guts was not the only reason. If they were to meet Tetsuya -stupid waste of time- then there was the chance that the boy would tell them the true circumstances of Lucrezia's death. Though he doubted that his son would do that since no matter how much his son hated him, he wouldn't do something that could lead to war. Even if the Borgias didn't do that there was still the chance that the Borgias would discover it anyway and if not that, then there was still the chance that they would discover that his son was being beaten almost every week - Most of the time by him-.

Thus he refused once again the request in his usual aloof way. The messenger grimaced probably thinking about how the Borgia family would react to such news.

_Bam_. The gigantic doors of the throne room were - violently - thrown open and in the opening stood the ever furious - or at least in his company - Empress Dowager. _Che_, there went any good mood that could have possibly remained after dealing a whole day with whiny nobles and other idiots. _Tss_, wrenched wretch. Today however his dear mother seemed a tad angrier than otherwise. He could only find one word powerful enough to describe this situation. Shit.

"What's wrong mother, dearest..." He said trailing of when he saw that her fists were clenched. Suddenly even the word shit didn't seem powerful enough to describe this situation. Oh well, he had other worries than finding the perfect description for the horrible situation he was going to find himself in. Like trying to get out of it.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?!" For whoever thought that his self pity on this situation wasn't going to increase anymore you're proven wrong because at that moment the emperor totally pitied his ears who had to hear this screeching and himself of course. Because there was never enough self pity! Right? (Euuuh...sure. )

"What's wrong is that you received guests without my or the councils knowledge! What's wrong is that you put those guests of unknown origin in the wing of the empire's _fucking_throne prince without my or the councils permission! And you dare to ask me what's wrong?" Ah, an angry mother was dangerous, a cursing mother was a sign of the beginning of the god damned apocalypse, a cursing mother in public? Let's not even go there.

Council? _Tsss_,Now that she mentioned it the council was standing behind her. They seemed shocked at her use of curse words. Truly, he was too. But, he had learned long ago to not show what one thought in public. In any case it had to be his unlucky day and his son had obviously not healed yet. So he wouldn't be taking his frustrations out there. Yes, definitely his unlucky day.

* * *

Cesare Borgia had just come back from a long discussion with his father. (Yeah,I am going to use whoever I please from the real Borgia family. The personality's will probably more be my fantasy since you cant' be quite sure of the character of people who have been death for a few centuries.) His father wanted to continue to lightly pressure the emperor from the Hideaki Empire. Cesare was from opinion that they had used that tactic for long enough and that they shouldn't request anymore but demand. Their infiltrator had continued giving them information about the boy's personality and other things though she seemed to be having a hard time because of the fact that the boys disliked her, but because of that each week again were they told in a letter that the boy had been beaten. Hard. It disturbed him. It disturbed him that the son of his sister who he had loved so much was being beaten. From what they had been told the boy had a lot of Lucrezia's personality. Sweet, but with an undeniable edge to them.

He looked at the picture they had been sent using magic. The boy was beautiful. The picture had been taken on a day where he had completely recovered from any beating's which he may have gotten. Except for the undeniable blue hair and eyes. He had her pearly white skin and soft pink lips.

Yes, anyone could see that the boy was the son of his beautiful sister.

He sat down on the bed. If they weren't allowed to see the boy. Then they would just have to find another reason to go to the kingdom. Wasn't the trade agreement between the two empires going to expire soon? Hmm, he did seem to remember that.

* * *

**_So this is the second chapter. I'm happy to see that the story is well received. But now the bad news. As I'm sure most of you know school has started again which means that I rarely will be updating. My typical weekday starts at 6:15 AM. It ends at 8:00 PM. So I'm sure that most of you will understand that I would like some time for myself. I thank my nice beta SilenceOfCrimsonSnow for correcting my terrible writing. I love reading reviews and they DO motivate me to write faster though I won't promise you guys anything.  
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	3. Chapter 3

Kuroko and Aomine both looked up to see a red headed boy with heterochromatic eyes as he had one golden eye and one red. Why was he suddenly meeting so many people with heterochromia? It's supposed to be rare. The boy seemed to be as tall as him. Maybe a bit taller. The heterochromia didn't seem to be the only thing the stranger had in common with Mukuro. He had the same icy demeanor which made Kuroko wary. Behind the stranger stood two other people one smiling friendly and the other having something similar to a scowl on his face. The one with the smile was quite tall, his half-long hair was chestnut brown along with his rather thick eyebrows. His eyes were a darker chocolate-brown. The thing that Kuroko found the most noticable though were his large hands which were so big that one of them would easily be able to cover both of his hands. The similar-to-a-scowl one had short dark green hair and bright green eyes, the color leaves had in the spring. Those spring leaves were hidden away behind black framed glasses. He seemed to be as tall as the other if not a bit taller. Both were lean in build and rather well-muscled. It also didn't escape Kuroko that their muscles were tensed as if prepared for a fight. Only the tall ones though. Why hadn't he seen that sooner?Why was he spending so much time on their appearance anyway?

Kise laughed a bubbly laugh. Kuroko had the feeling that it was the only type of laugh Kise knew but didn't make any comment about it as the sound of it seemed to have relaxed the two taller boys.

"Midorimacchi! Kiyoshicchi! Akashi!." Kuroko noticed that the blone didn't add any -cchi to the Akashi name. Akashi was probably the redhead as the boy nodded when that name was called.

"Kise, Aomine." The boy said nodding to them before turning his attention on Kuroko. "Who is your ...friend?"

Kise grinned and bounced over to the blue haired boy pulling the small boy's back easily into his own chest letting his head rest on the other's shoulder.

"This is Kuroko Tetsuya. He's the other inhabitant of the wing we're staying in." Akashi's eyes narrowed in interest.

"Kuroko? Isn't that the imperial family's name?" The blue haired boy grimaced before nodding.

"Then why would your back be in shreds? Kise, are you sure you didn't let yourself be fooled?"Akashi asked knowing that it wasn't possible to fool Kise. Still,it was rather unbelievable that the throne prince would be mistreated like this. Kise pouted in response to his question, but nodded enthusiastically anyway while pulling the blue haired boy closer to him in a suffocating hug. Surprisingly enough the mortal's reaction to a body being pushed into his more than likely painful wounds was minimal. A barely audible, to a human that is, moan escaped the boy's mouth.

Kuroko thanked the water sprites for having dulled most of the pain in his wounds. He couldn't imagine what his reaction would have been had he been able to feel the pain fully. It was now already more than painful enough. Kuroko pulled free of Kise with surprisingly much strength for his small body.

"I am not obliged to make you feel that my words are not a lie. If you choose to believe that I lie then that's fine. If you choose to believe that I am not lying than at least you have proved yourself to have a small amount of brains." He said feeling annoyed that someone would believe that he would lie over something as silly as his identity. In his own wing no less!

He turned his head to Aomine and Kise not trusting the newcomers enough to turn his back on them. "It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope that you'll enjoy your stay in my wing. Aomine if you ever find yourself willing to spar again with me then please just tell one of the guards and they shall inform me. If you prefer a more personal approach than you can always try to find me in my room. If I'm not there then most probably Mukuro will be there."

Kise smiled and Aomine just nodded feeling slightly unnerved by the tense atmosphere that was in the air. Kuroko turned away from them and gave the three newcomers a cold nod before taking off.

Akashi turned with narrowed eyes to Kise and Aomine. "Who is he?"

Aomine and Kise swallowed. Pissed off Akashi.

Aaaaaah,shit.

* * *

The emperor looked out the window. As far as the eye could reach he saw the capital city. A wellfaring city with a surprisingly low amount of crime, beggars and invalid people. An example of how a good city should be to all the surroundings countries. Not to the surrounding cities since those as well were almost perfect. Whenever he felt regret for his choices in life he looked out of this window. It gave a large view of the city. The warmth and happiness that were in the city made him feel better about those choices. Because no matter how horrible those choices had been the result was the greatness of his empire. The suffering of a few for the happiness of millions. It was a fair deal. Yet at times doubt seeped through. Was he actually right? Maybe he was wrong, but it didn't matter . He wouldn't be able to change the deal anymore, even if he'd wanted to. And he wasn't even sure he wanted to. Might as well let sleeping lions lie. The sun was slowly lowering giving more and more land to the shadows. The shadows that in fact made sure that the Empire was as great as it was. Blood magic. So called dark magic. Not necessarily really. The Blood magic that was used for the Empire was darker as night could ever hope to be. The emperor's eyes trailed over the building of the capital which were seemingly glowing crescent in the last sunlight. One more year. One more year before another sacrifice was required.

His eyes closed painfully. Some love he had originally held for the person had fled as his intentions to use him for the greater good grew. Except it seemed that avoiding the feeling completely had been impossible. He slowly stood up from his chair by the window and moved over the thick carpet his feet seemed to be drowning in.

His feet carried him to his bureau were a marriage proposal lay innocently on his desk. He would have liked to avoid this, but he knew he couldn't. It was time for him to have a new empress.

He had surprised himself by deciding to choose his consort as marriage partner. He knew the council wouldn't throw too much of a tantrum about it. While they would prefer someone from another kingdom or Empire they wouldn't be bothered by his choice too much since she was from an old noble family. A raven appeared next to him. He gently gave it the letter being careful of its sharp-looking talons. Go Raiden. Go and bring me good news.

The raven disappeared again.

Now to more important problems. What was he going to with those demons? He knew he couldn't just throw them out. And he hadn't paid his part of the deal yet.

He had heard the reports from his guards that the demons had shown an interest in his son. He hoped that his son wasn't as stupid as to fall in love with them. He remembered when he himself had been young. The demons had been so very attractive. Their personalities all clashing. He had been intrigued. And he had ended up falling in love with them. They hadn't hesitated to crush his heart with a smile on their faces. He didn't have any need for a broken heir. He looked at his wife's picture. The first sacrifice. The mother to his only son. And he smiled. It had been hard to sacrifice the woman in such a bloody way; as a death caused by violence was requested as sacrifice, but it'd been worth it. He was sure that she would have agreed with him if she had known. A small voice in his head asked him why he hadn't just told her then.

He made it shut up. After all he was always right.

* * *

Steam collected itself in the bathroom caused by the obviously very hot water. Kuroko slipped into the water ignoring the burn as he knew that the water would soon enough cool itself down as not to cause him harm. He did not really understand the reason water loved him as much as it did. But he knew that it did. When his mother had died it had rained heavily for months until the sky slowly started clearing up as his emotions did. Water reacted to his emotions but also reacted with its own. Whenever he was injured severely the rivers would overflow their borders taking down several cities with it out of anger. When he had first found out the water's adoration of him he had been terribly afraid. Villages were wiped right from the map simply because he took longer to recover from his injuries than normally. But as his mother had died, his grandmother busy was with the funeral and his father starting to distance himself the water had been his solid companion. When he was sad the water would notice and cheer him up. He looked down at the steaming water scented with lavender and some spices. He then noticed Mukuro's reflection on the water surface. He had forgotten about the boy. The water wasn't scalding hot anymore and he raised his arm invitingly to the boy.

Mukuro looked down at the prince who was reaching his hand out to him invitingly. Slowly he moved into the water half expecting to be burned even though he himself had witnessed how the water had suddenly let out a lot of steam when the prince had entered the water almost as if someone had thrown ice-cold water in the burning hot water.

Not for the first time Mukuro wondered if the prince had a gift unknown to everyone else. He walked to the underwater benches placing himself inapprotiately close to the other. The physically older boy showed no reaction to this. Suddenly water streamed down over his head leaving him gasping. What? Where?! The water disappeared and in his view appeared a Kuroko who had turned to him smiling gently.

"Sorry I should have warned you for the water." Kuroko's hair, Mukuro now noticed, was also wet.

"Turn around." Before Mukuro could respond he was turned around by Kuroko. He noticed his body was pulled against Kuroko's cold chest.

"Close your eyes." Was the only warning he got before he felt hands massaging his scalp with soap. The soap smelled of mint and a few other spices. He felt that it strangely fitted him and Kuroko was quite gentle yet thorough with working the soap in so he deciced not to object. Not that he liked the feeling or anything. Apparently Kuroko was satisfied with the way the soap had worked in cause once again Water streamed over his head. For a moment he felt thankful that he had obeyed the other boy's order. When the soap was completely out of his hair he was allowed to open his eyes once again. Carefully a cream was spread over his head but apparently this one didn't need to be washed out. He looked at the water watching Kuroko's reflection as he massaged the cream in. The boy's face had a very soft smile on his face while his mind seemed to be wandering to other subjects. When the teal haired boy was finally done he turned around again.

Then he noticed something he hadn't noticed before. Well he had, but not clearly and thus had decided to not chase the subject ending up forgetting it. While not clearly visible there still were some rather obvious cuts and bruises that were doing a good job at littering the other's body. He recognized the way some of the bruises seemed to disappear in the light as magic. Concealing magic. It would have worked fine with any other person. But he wasn't any other person. He was Mukuro Rokudo. The best there was in illusion and some other kind's of magic. But a concealing charm belonged to the illusion category. He was able to see through at this distance quite easily. He was surprised he hadn't noticed it before. He had been living with the prince now a few days after all and these bruises were already starting to become a very ugly green. Which meant that Kuroko either was a genius at magic or had used this spell so much that it had become almost perfect. For some reason he suspected both. Or maybe he just knew magicians who liked money. Always a possibility.

When the other turned around to reach for his own soap Mukuro almost had to stifle a gasp at the shredded back. But of course he was Mukuro Rokudo he didn't do things such as gasping. He only chuckled. 'Uchem' But any other person than him would have to stifle a gasp back. But he repeated. Not him.

The back carried countless scars. And Mukuro had seen enough in the six hells to know that those didn't come to be by falling. These were marks of whiplashes, caning, knives, but not of falling like most abused victims loved to tell everyone. Kuroko had never told him he fell. No, he had decided he'd rather not say anything at all. Mukuro was seething. How the hell was he supposed to possess an abused victim. Those most of the time either wanted to commit suicide and thus were slowly ripping a part their own soul. And however unfortunate it was to possess a living being it need to have a complete soul. If not suicidal abuse victims had a very strong will once again leaving it impossible to possess them as they often could easily will any unwanted thoughts out their minds the same happening to their possessor. He was going to kill the person that had made sure he couldn't possess such an influential person. A small part of him said that wasn't the only reason he was angry. That he was also angry because a person that had been so kind to him was being treated this way. Naturally he ignored that part although unknowingly.

* * *

Momoi explored the palace holding back a sigh. Every month or so her father would take her with him to court to show her off almost like a breed horse to potential suitors. Mind him with potential suitors he actually meant the prince. It had started after her father took her once to court when she and Kuroko had been six. Her father had let her roam free as he needed to attend his meeting and he could hardly drag her with him. He had told her to stay in the place she had been left and that soon a servant would come find her and keep an eye on her. She however had always been a bit on the adventurous side and as soon as her father had rounded the corridor had taken off exploring. At one moment she had stumbled upon an inner garden. At that moment she had wondered how it was possible that there were so little people when before at least three people had been in every hallway. Later she would discover that it was because the place she had so carelessly entered had been the strictly forbidden from entrance of the private wing of the prince. The garden had been full of all kind of plants a few she recognized with the little amount of education for her future job as a healer as poisons. In the inner part of the garden a large part had been left open with two fountains to the East and the West and between the two of them an undeep, but large circle formed lower level platform filled with water. In the middle of that platform she had for the first time seen the prince. Not that she had known at the time. The boy had his back turned to her and his back had been moving with what had to be silent laughter.

For some reason she had felt angry at that. Here she was being dragged around by her father to boring places ending up getting lost and there that boy was enjoying his time. It just wasn't fair! She had angrily strode forward grabbing the boy's shoulder and felt him stiffen under her. Though the laughing seemed to worsen as his body shook worse. What kind of idiot laughed at nothing she remembered she thought snidely.

"What in The Gods Names are you laughing at?!" She had barked out.

The boy turned around smiling at her. "My dad and mom." The boy had answered as if that explained everything. It hadn't until the girl had noticed the picture laying in the boy's lap. On the picture was a blue haired man standing stiffly next to a grinning woman. The funny thing was that their seemed to have been exchanged; The man was wearing a too small dress for his broad shoulders while the woman was wearing clothes so big they almost seemed like bags on her. The man's eyes had a surprisingly soft look in them as he watched the woman posing as if she just defeated a great enemy. His lips also had the slightest curl upwards not noticeable if you weren't looking for it.

Out of the edge of her eyes the blonde woman was also looking at the man. They showed pure adoration. And her lips were curled into a soft smile unfitting in the grande movements she seemed to be making.

They looked truly happy together.

* * *

Finally! The third chapter. First all I wanted to make clear that while the name of the snow owl in the previous chapter was German the language which was used other than that was dutch. Belgian dutch. A reviewer seemed to think that it was german and I realised than that it might not be all that clear. Thanks for wanting to correct me by the way. Secondly some people say that I've got a weird writing style but's it's pretty easy to follow once you get the hang of it. Every time there is a line break it means that I changed from character and situation most often alot for all of the reviews and sorry that this chapter took so long. But please be understanding. I'm writing my lunbreak in school right now just to have some time to write. And obviously lunchbreak isn't that long.

But please review I most of the time have more inspiration after reading a review so I wriet faster that way. Ciaou!


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